End of summer and Wax Moths

We are only a few weeks away from our fall harvest. It looks like we will have nearly all the frames from both hives to harvest from. Unfortunately, with the extremely dry and hot weather, when we checked in on the girls today, from all appearances, the nectar flow must be over because there was little to no progress made from when we checked a few weeks ago. But we are still excited to be able to harvest from both hives this go around--a first for us!

Bad news, when we checked on our extra honey supers (which we keep stored away in my Dad's shop when not in use) Wax Moths had completely destroyed the comb throughout the entire box. We have never had Wax Moths before and weren't real concerned with them due in part because we are working on only 2 hives. But obviously, they are a real problem no matter how large or small your beekeeping operation may be. We had to rip all of the bees' nicely drawn comb out. It kind of made us sick to do it, as it was filled with eggs, larva and a few adult moths. Back to square 1. Looking at it as a lesson learned; next time we will have our moth crystals ready!

Of course...photos below:

 Your truly!

 Haha! Staged or not staged? :)

 Smoke

 More Smoke

 Empty frames, after removing all infested comb

 The yellow, powdery stuff is a byproduct of the moths

 See the little brown eggs? GROSS!

Adult Wax Moth!!!